ipad as a gift?

maggie78

My mum wants an e-reader and my father wants a small notebook, but mainly for email and news updates while travelling, so I was thinking for buying them an ipad. I'm concerned though with the ongoing costs of an ipad, and that buying them one of each of what they want might be a better option. What do you think?

J+R

Hummm... I would get your mom a Kindle or something if she really likes books and wants it to read. If your dad wants something more like a notepad, then I would do the iPad for him. 

Have you given it thought that you would have to keep up the $$ (or someone would) for the iPad and that maybe they wouldnt want that burden? 

I think they sound like very great, generous gifts!

MerRhosyn

The iPad is pretty heavy to hold up like a book/e-reader.  Assuming you don't have the Kindle in Australia...or is that incorrect?

RhymesWithOrange

I believe the only ongoing costs of the iPad would be if you got the 3G model. You could get the wifi only model and not have to worry about that.

is_it_over_yet?

MerRhosyn:

The iPad is pretty heavy to hold up like a book/e-reader.  Assuming you don't have the Kindle in Australia...or is that incorrect?

Ditto.  I love Apple products but I used an iPad for about 3 weeks and found it too heavy for comfortable reading.  If used outside, the glare is pretty bad as well.

RhymesWithOrange

is_it_over_yet?:

MerRhosyn:

The iPad is pretty heavy to hold up like a book/e-reader.  Assuming you don't have the Kindle in Australia...or is that incorrect?

Ditto.  I love Apple products but I used an iPad for about 3 weeks and found it too heavy for comfortable reading.  If used outside, the glare is pretty bad as well.

Good point -- I'm not sure what the release date is for the Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia, but I think it's the perfect size/weight at 7 inches. 

maggie78

MerRhosyn:

The iPad is pretty heavy to hold up like a book/e-reader.  Assuming you don't have the Kindle in Australia...or is that incorrect?

No I have a Kindle, we are limited book choice wise, but this is becomming less and less.

The ongoing $ is my major concern with an ipad as a gift, though wifi only may be an option. I was thinking that it was something they could both use for their different needs/wants, and therefore overall make it less to carry than 2 items.

Thanks for your help!

moshi's paw

I have an iPad 3G model, but I don't have a subscription to the 3G access.  There are plenty of wifi access points around where I've been, so that hasn't really been an issue of "ongoing costs".  It was honestly perfect for our HM to Italy- each 9 hour flight was survived with movies, music, ebooks, solitaire, etc.  And we were able to upload our pictures right from our cameras to the iPad and uploaded them to FB and our website using a wifi access point (free!). 

GilliC

I've been using my iPad for a while, and I really like it.  It's definitely great for email and simple web browsing when I travel.  In fact, I've been spending weeks in the US for work this year, and I haven't even gotten my work laptop out at the hotel in the evenings, since I can do all the browsing I need on the iPad.

I don't have a problem with the weight when I use it as an ereader, though I would like to get a better stand for it, so that I can prop it up and read without holding it (i.e. on the airplane tray table, or on the table while I'm eating alone).  I've heard people complain about eye fatigue from the display when reading for a long time, but I turn the brightness down quite low and haven't had any issues (but I also spend all day staring at a computer anyway).

The only concern I have is that if the iPad isn't available yet in Australia, you would need a US iTunes account to download apps for it.  Also, I just have the WiFi version, so I have to stick to WiFi hotspots to use it, but I'd like the 3G for the mobile internet connection.  However, it takes a micro-SIM card, which we can't get here in Norway yet.  One of my bosses has the 3G and actually took a pair of scissors to a regular SIM card, and it works (he found the details online)!  Risky, but possible!

raza13

do you have to get your dad an ipad? you can get him a netbook instead. they are smaller than regular notebooks, thus cheaper. I'm not sure if you all have any where you are or what kind of variety there is but its something to look at. netbooks are great for people just casually using the internet and run on windows. It does not work well for people who use the computer for work/school.